pursue her good fortune; and as another sermon was to be preached the
same evening, she adjourned to an adjacent public-house, where, without
either pain or difficulty, she soon reduced the protuberance of her
waist, and having entirely changed her dress, she returned to the
meeting, where she had not remained long before she picked a gentleman's
pocket of a gold watch, with which she escaped unsuspected. Her
accomplices also were industrious and successful; for, on a division of
the booty obtained this evening, they each received thirty guineas.
These acts procured for her universal respect among her fellows, and in
all their future transactions they yielded an exact obedience to her
wishes.
The game which she had played having been found so successful, Jenny
again assumed the appearance of a pregnant woman, and, attended by an
accomplice as a footman, went towards St. James's Park on a day when the
king was going to the House of Lords; and, there being a great number of
persons between the Park and Spring Gardens, she purposely slipped down,
and was instantly surrounded by many of both sexes, who were emulous to
afford her assistance; but, affecting to be in violent pain, she
intimated to them that she was desirous of remaining on the ground till
she should be somewhat recovered. As she expected, the crowd increased,
and her pretended footman, and a female accomplice, were so industrious
as to obtain two diamond girdle-buckles, a gold watch, a gold snuff-box,
and two purses, containing together upwards of forty guineas. The
girdle-buckles, watch, and snuff-box, were the following day advertised,
a considerable reward was offered, and a promise given that no questions
should be asked of the party who should return them; but our heroine
declaring that their restoration would entirely break down the
principles upon which their association was conducted, they were sold to
the Jews in Duke's-place.
Ever fertile in inventions, she proceeded with her supposed servant to
the east-end of the town, and observing a genteel house, the latter
knocked and begged that his mistress, who had been taken suddenly ill,
might be permitted to enter to rest herself a few minutes. The request
was complied with; and while the mistress of the house and the servant
were up stairs seeking such things as might be supposed to afford relief
to their visitor, she opened a drawer and stole sixty guineas; and
afterwards, while the lady was holding a smelling-bottle to her nose,
she picked her pocket of a purse, containing, however, only a small sum.
Her supposed servant, in the mean while, was not idle, and having been
ordered into the kitchen, he pocketed six silver table-spoons, a
pepper-box, and a salt-cellar. All the available booty having now been
secured, the servant was sent for a coach, and Jenny, pretending to be
somewhat recovered, went away, saying that she was the wife of a
respectable merchant in Thames-street, and pressing her entertainer to
dine with her on a certain day, which she appointed. The impudence of
these frauds, however, soon attracted public attention, and it was found
that some new plan must be determined upon, by which the public might be
gulled.
Until some novel method of robbing should be devised, however, it was
determined that the gang should go to Bristol, to seek adventures and
profit during the fair; and in order to render their proceedings the
more likely to be successful, they admitted into their society a man who
had long subsisted there as a thief. Jenny and Murphy now assumed the
character of merchants' wives, while the new member and another of the
gang appeared as country farmers, and the footman was continued in the
same character. They took lodgings in different parts of the city; and
they agreed, that in case of any of them being apprehended, the rest
should appear to speak to the character of the prisoners, and
representing them to be persons of reputation in London, endeavour to
procure their release.
Being one day in the fair, they observed a west-country clothier giving
a sum of money to his servant, and heard him direct the man to deposit
it in a bureau. They followed the servant, and one of them fell down
before him, expecting that he would also fall, and that, as there was a
great crowd, the money might be easily secured; but though the man fell
into the snare, they were not able to obtain their expected booty, and
therefore had recourse to the following stratagem:--One of the gang
asked the man whether his master had not lately ordered him to carry
home a sum of money; to which the other replied in the affirmative; and
the sharper then told him that he must return to his master, who had
purchased some goods, and waited to pay for them. The countryman
followed him to Jenny's lodgings, and, being introduced to her, she
desired him to be seated, saying his master was gone on some business in
the neighbourhood, but had left orders for him to wait till his return.
She urged him to drink a glass of wine, but the poor fellow declined her
offers with awkward simplicity, the pretended footman having taught him
to believe her a woman of great wealth and consequence. Her encouraging
solicitations, however, conquered his bashfulness, and he drank till he
became intoxicated. Being conducted into another apartment, he soon fell
fast asleep, and, while in that situation, he was robbed of the money he
had received from his master, which proved to be a hundred pounds. They
were no sooner in possession of the cash, than they discharged the
demand of the inn-keeper, and set out in the first stage for London.
Soon after their return to town Jenny and her associates went to London
Bridge in the dusk of the evening, and, observing a lady standing at a
door to avoid the carriages, a number of which were passing, one of the
men went up to her, and, under pretence of giving her assistance, seized
both her hands, which he held till his accomplices had rifled her
pockets of a gold snuff-box, a silver case containing a set of
instruments, and thirty guineas in cash.
On the following day, as Jenny, and an accomplice, in the character of a
footman, were walking through Change Alley, she picked a gentleman's
pocket of a bank-note for two hundred pounds, for which she received one
hundred and thirty from a Jew, with whom the gang had very extensive
connexions.
Our heroine now hired a real footman; and her favourite, who had long
acted in that character, assumed the appearance of a gentleman; and they
hired lodgings in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden, that they might
more conveniently attend the theatres. She dressed herself in an elegant
manner, and went to the theatre one evening when the king was to be
present; and, during the performance, she attracted the particular
attention of a young gentleman of fortune from Yorkshire, who declared,
in the most passionate terms, that she had made an absolute conquest,
and earnestly solicited that he might be permitted to attend her home.
She at first refused to comply with his request, saying that she was
newly married, but she at length yielded to his entreaties, and he
accompanied her to her door in a hackney-coach, and quitted her only on
her promising to admit him on a future evening, when, she said, her
husband would be out of town. The day of appointment being arrived, two
of the gang were equipped in elegant liveries; and Anne Murphy appeared
as waiting-maid. The gentleman soon made his appearance, having a
gold-headed cane in his hand, a sword by his side with a gold hilt, and
wearing a gold watch and a diamond ring. Being introduced to the
bed-chamber, he was soon deprived of his ring; and he had not undressed
many minutes before the lady's-maid knocked violently at the door,
exclaiming that her master was suddenly returned. Jenny affected to be
labouring under the most violent agitation, and begged that the
gentleman would cover himself with the bed-clothes, saying that she
would convey his apparel into the other room, so that, if her husband
came there, nothing would appear to awaken his suspicion; and adding
that, under pretence of indisposition, she would prevail upon her
husband to sleep in another bed, and then return to the arms of her
lover. The gull acquiesced, and the clothes being removed, a short
consultation was held among the thieves, the result of which was that
they immediately decamped, carrying their booty with them, which,
exclusive of the cane &c., was worth a hundred guineas.
The amorous youth meanwhile waited with anxious impatience for the
coming of his Dulcinea; but morning having arrived, he rang the bell,
and the people of the house coming to him, found that he was locked in,
the fair fugitive having carried off the key with her. The door was,
however, burst open, and an éclaircissement ensued, when the gentleman
explained the manner in which he had been treated; but the people of the
house, deaf to his expostulations, threatened to publish the adventure
through the town, unless he would make up the loss which they had
sustained. Rather than risk the safety of his reputation, he sent for
money and some clothes and discharged the debt which Jenny had
contracted, quitting the house, bitterly repenting that his amorous
qualities should have led him into such a scrape.
The continuance of the system under which this gang pursued its labours
became now impossible, and they found it necessary to leave the
metropolis; but having committed numerous depredations in the country,
they returned, and Jenny was unfortunately apprehended on a charge of
picking a gentleman's pocket, for which she was sentenced to be
transported.
She remained nearly four months in Newgate, during which time she
employed a considerable sum in the purchase of stolen effects; and when
she went on board the transport vessel, she shipped a quantity of goods
nearly sufficient to load a waggon. The property she possessed ensured
her great respect, and every possible convenience and accommodation
during the voyage; and on her arrival in Virginia, she disposed of her
goods, and for some time lived in great splendour and elegance. She soon
found, however, that America was a country where she could expect but
little emolument from the practices she had so successfully followed in
England, and she therefore employed every art she was mistress of to
ingratiate herself with a young gentleman, who was preparing to embark
on board a vessel bound for the port of London. He became much enamoured
of her, and brought her to England; but while the ship lay at Gravesend,
she robbed him of all the property she could get into her possession,
and pretending indisposition, intimated a desire of going on shore, in
which her admirer acquiesced; but she was no sooner on land than she
made a precipitate retreat.
She now travelled through various parts of the country; and having by
her usual wicked practices obtained many considerable sums, she at
length returned to London, but was not able to find her former
accomplices. She frequented the Royal Exchange, the theatres,
London-bridge, and other places of public resort, and committed
innumerable depredations on the public; but being again detected in
picking a gentleman's pocket on London-bridge, she was taken before a
magistrate, to whom she declared that her name was Jane Webb, and by
that appellation she was committed to Newgate.
On her trial, a gentleman who had detected her in the very act of
picking the prosecutor's pocket, deposed that a person had applied to
him, offering fifty pounds, on condition that he should not appear in
support of the prosecution: and a lady swore that on the day the
prisoner committed the offence for which she stood indicted, she saw her
pick the pockets of more than twenty different people. The record of her
former conviction was not produced in court, and therefore she was
arraigned for privately stealing only, and, on the clearest evidence,
the jury pronounced her guilty. The property being valued at less than
one shilling, she was sentenced to transportation.
Twelve months had not elapsed before she returned from exile a second
time; and on her arrival in London, she renewed her former practices. A
lady going from Sherborne-lane to Walbrook was accosted by a man, who
took her hand, seemingly as if to assist her in crossing some planks
which were placed over the gutter for the convenience of passengers; but
he squeezed her fingers with so much force as to give her great pain,
and in the mean time Jenny picked her pocket of thirteen shillings and a
penny. The gentlewoman, conscious of being robbed, seized the thief by
the gown, and she was immediately conducted to the Compter. She was
examined the next day by the lord mayor, who committed her to Newgate
for trial.
At the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey, she was tried on an
indictment charging her with privately stealing; and a verdict of guilty
having been brought in, she was sentenced to death.
After conviction she appeared to have a due sense of the awful situation
in which she was placed; and employing a great part of her time in
devotion, she repented sincerely of the course of iniquity in which she
had so long persisted. On the day preceding that of her execution, she
sent for the woman who nursed her child, which was then about three
years old, and saying that there was a person who would pay for its
maintenance, she earnestly entreated that it might be carefully
instructed in the duties of religion. On the following morning she
appeared to be in a serene state of mind. The preparations in the
press-yard for a moment shook her fortitude, but her spirits were soon
again tolerably composed. She was conveyed to Tyburn in a
mourning-coach, being attended by a clergyman, to whom she declared her
firm belief in the principles of the Protestant Church. Her remains
were, at her own desire, buried in St. Pancras churchyard.
Her execution took place on the 18th March, 1740.
CHARLES DREW.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS FATHER.
The only circumstance of peculiarity attending this case, and it is one
indeed, we are happy to say, not a little singular, is that the
malefactor was the son of the man whom he murdered. The father being
possessed of good property at Long Melford in Suffolk, discarded his
son, who appears to have been brought up without any education being
imparted to him, on account of his connexion with a woman named
Elizabeth Boyer. The latter, angered at the contempt exhibited for her,
urged her paramour, as well for revenge as for the accession to their
means, which would be produced by the old man's death, to commit the
foul deed which cost him his life. He was apprehended at the instance of
a relation, a Mr. Timothy Drew, and being convicted, was executed on the
9th April, 1740, at St. Edmund's Bury, being in the twenty-fifth year of
his age.
This case so nearly resembles the celebrated story of George Barnwell,
that the following anecdote in reference to the tragedy of that name
will not be misplaced here. It is related in reference to Mr. Ross,
formerly a tragedian of considerable celebrity.
"A gentleman, much dejected in his looks, called one day on Ross, when
stricken with years, and told him that his father, a wealthy citizen in
London, lay at the point of death, and begged that he might see him, or
he could not die in peace of mind. Curious as this request appeared from
a stranger, and in such extremity, the actor hesitated; but being much
pressed by his visitor, he agreed to accompany him. Arrived at the house
of the sick man, Mr. Ross was announced, and soon admitted into his
chamber; but observing the family to retire, and being left alone with
the patient, his wonder was again aroused. The dying penitent, now three
score years and ten, casting his languid eyes upon Ross, said, 'Can it
be you who raised my fortune--who saved my life? Then were you young
like myself; ay, and amiable amid the direst misfortunes. I determined
to amend my life, and avoid your fate.' Here nature in a struggle with
death became overpowered, and as the sick man's head fell upon his
pillow, he faintly ejaculated, 'O Barnwell! Barnwell!' We may conceive
the astonishment of the player, whom age had long incapacitated from
representing the unfortunate 'London Apprentice.' The feeble man,
renewing his efforts to gratify a dying desire, again opened his eyes
and continued: 'Mr. Ross, some forty years ago, like George Barnwell, I
wronged my master to supply the unbounded extravagance of a Millwood. I
took her to see your performance, which so shocked me that I silently
vowed to break the connexion then by my side, and return to the path of
virtue. I kept my resolution, and replaced the money I had stolen before
my villany was detected. I bore up against the upbraidings of my
deluder, and found a Maria in my master's daughter. We married. I soon
succeeded to her father's business, and the young man who brought you
here was the first pledge of our love. I have more children, or I would
have shown my gratitude to you by a larger sum than I have bequeathed
you; but take a thousand pounds affixed to your name.' At the dying
man's signal, old Ross left the room overwhelmed by his feelings."
CAPTAIN SAMUEL GOODERE, MATTHEW MAHONY, AND CHARLES WHITE.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF SIR JOHN D. GOODERE, BART.
This atrocious murder was committed through the instrumentality of
Captain Samuel Goodere, upon his brother Sir John Dineley Goodere, on
board a man of war, of which the former was Captain.
Sir John, it appears, was possessed of an estate of 3000_l._ per annum,
situated at Evesham, in Worcestershire, which he derived from his
father, Sir Edward: and his brother, who is the subject of this sketch,
having been bred to the sea, was advanced to the rank of Captain of one
of his Majesty's vessels of war. Sir John having no children, very
sanguine expectations were entertained by his brother that he should
inherit his property, but upon his discovering that he had made a will
in favour of their sister's children, his rage knew no bounds, and he
determined upon a most diabolical revenge for the supposed injury which
he had received. The vessel of which Captain Goodere had the command, it
appears, was employed as one of the Channel cruisers, and in the month
of January, 1741, it was lying at Bristol. At this period it happened
that Sir John Goodere was in that city, transacting some business with
Mr. Smith, an attorney; and his brother having been made acquainted with
the circumstance, fixed upon this as a proper time to put his plan into
execution. Throwing himself into Mr. Smith's way, he assured him that a
perfect reconciliation had taken place between them, notwithstanding a
misunderstanding which was known to have existed; and after some
conversation, learning that his brother was going to dine with that
gentleman on a certain day, he procured himself to be invited to meet
him. Having determined upon this as a favourable opportunity to carry
his design into execution, on his going ashore he carried with him some
of his seamen, to whom he gave instructions that Sir John being insane,
he desired to procure him to be carried on board his ship, in order that
he might be conveyed to a place of safety. The men therefore, having
been regaled during the evening at a neighbouring public-house, as night
approached placed themselves in readiness to obey the orders which they
had received; and Sir John making his appearance, they seized him and
forcibly put him into a boat, in which they directly rowed him to the
vessel. The protestations made by the captain, that it was only a
deserter whom they were apprehending, silenced all inquiry from the
crowd which had assembled on their perceiving this outrage, and the
unfortunate baronet was secured without an effort being made to procure
his release, or to save him from the bloody fate which awaited him.
As soon as the devoted victim was in the boat, he said to his brother,
"I know you have an intention to murder me; and if you are ready to do
it, let me beg that it may be done here, without giving yourself the
trouble to take me on board;" to which the captain said, "No, brother, I
am going to prevent your rotting on land; but, however, I would have you
make your peace with God this night."
Sir John having reached the vessel, he called to the seamen for help,
but they having learned their captain's commands from their fellows, did
not offer to render the slightest aid, and the wretched gentleman was
immediately conveyed to the purser's cabin.
White and Mahony were selected by their captain as the performers in the
dreadful scene which was now to be enacted. While Goodere stood at the
entrance of the cabin guarding it with a drawn sword, his two assistants
entered it, and approached their victim. He cried aloud for mercy,
offering all he possessed as a return, if they would spare his life;
but, regardless of his prayers, they deliberately proceeded to the
completion of their sanguinary intentions. Seizing him by the shoulders,
they threw him on the deck, and there, with a handkerchief which they
took from his pocket, they attempted to strangle him. Finding that their
efforts were unavailing, they procured a cord from their guilty
commander, with which they speedily despatched him; White kneeling on
his breast and holding his hands, while Mahony fixed the cord round his
throat, and tightened it until strangulation had taken place. They then
accompanied their captain to his cabin, who gave them the sum agreed
upon for their services, and bid them seek their safety in flight. The
murder was soon made known on shore, through the instrumentality of the
crew of the vessel; and the circumstance having come to the knowledge of
Mr. Smith, the attorney, he procured a warrant to be issued, upon which
the officers of the city proceeded on board the ship. They found that
the captain had there been already put under arrest by the lieutenant
and sailing-master, and he was immediately conveyed in custody to the
prison of the town. It was not long before Mahony and White were also
secured; and the prisoners being brought to trial at Bristol, on the
26th March, 1741, they were convicted on the clearest evidence, and
sentenced to death.
Captain Goodere's time, after conviction, was spent chiefly in writing
letters to persons of rank, to make interest to save his life; and his
wife and daughter presented a petition to the king: but all endeavours
of this kind proving ineffectual, he employed a man to hire some
colliers to rescue him on his way to the fatal tree.
His efforts in this respect, however, were as unavailing as those which
he had made to procure a mitigation of his punishment; for the
circumstance having been made known to the sheriff, he took such steps
as were deemed expedient and necessary to prevent the success of the
project. The wretched companions in guilt of the captain exhibited the
greatest hardihood; and when the jailers were employed in putting on
their irons, they declared that they had no fear of death.
Captain Goodere's wife and daughter, dressed in deep mourning, took a
solemn leave of him on the day before his death; and he went in a
mourning-coach to the place of execution, to which his accomplices were
conveyed in a cart.
They were hanged near the Hot Wells, Bristol, on the 20th of April,
1741, within view of the place where the ship lay when the murder was
committed.
JOHN BODKIN, DOMINICK BODKIN, AND OTHERS.
EXECUTED FOR MURDER.